


Wonderful

by helsinkibaby



Series: Right Beside Me Around Every Turn [14]
Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Death of a Parent, F/M, Het, Romance, terminal illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 18:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14118615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Chris falls asleep in the middle of the day.





	Wonderful

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked a question... This is the answer!

Chris wakes up with a start, the kind that comes with not knowing not only how long you’ve been asleep for but also not being entirely sure where you are. A quick glance around assures her that she’s at her dad’s house in Melbourne, her home for the last couple of months, that she’s in his bedroom, in the rather uncomfortable chair that was in the corner of the room, the one Dad hated as a seat but found a very useful place to drape his clothes rather than hang them up. It was a habit of his that always driven her mother mad and after she’d died there had been no-one around to break him of it so the chair had stayed, mostly unsat upon, until her dad had got sick and Chris and Tom had moved to Melbourne to nurse him through his final days. 

That thought has her eyes swinging towards the bed and she meets an amused smile, a pair of twinkling eyes that are much like her own. “It’s ok,” her dad says. “I’m still here.” 

Chris’s stomach lurches at the matter of fact way he says it, even if she knows he’s teasing her. She doesn’t find anything funny in the quip, a part of her still fighting against believing the inevitable. She shakes her head as she pushes herself up straighter, pushes the heel of her hands into her eyes. “How long was I asleep for?” 

“I woke up about ten minutes ago, you were out like a light.” A glance at her watch tells her it’s about an hour since she sat down, that it’s still early in the afternoon. “You must have been tired.” 

Chris still feels tired, even after a nap. “I never sleep in the afternoon.” 

She says it more to herself than to her dad but he chuckles softly. “Just like your mother; she never did either.” There’s a lilt to his voice, though, a cadence that tells her that there’s something he’s not saying. She’s about to ask him what he means but before she can, he continues, “Only when she was pregnant.” 

There’s a pull to his lips, a smile peeking through and the words hit Chris like a ton of bricks. Her first impulse is to deny the possibility even as it makes her head spin, even as she’s counting back the days and weeks and realising that the possibility is very very real indeed. 

Her dad must see the realisation play across her face because he chuckles again. “There’s a pharmacy just down the road, you know. I’m sure I’ll be fine if you wanted to take a walk.” 

Shock has banished Chris’s sleepiness, along with her voice, so she just nods, walks at a brisk pace to the shops and back, barely calling out a hello to her dad on her return before heading to the bathroom. 

Two minutes later she’s staring at a blue cross on a white background as tears roll down her cheeks. 

Standing on shaky legs, she makes her way back to her dad’s bedroom. He’s sitting up in bed like he’s waiting for her which she’s fairly sure he has been. “Well?” he asks and there’s a lump in her throat that makes speech impossible so she just nods as fresh tears roll down her cheeks. 

“Oh, my darling.” Her dad’s smile is broad, beaming even. “Oh, I’m so pleased.” He holds out his hand towards her and Chris walks over to him and takes it, drops down on the bed because her knees won’t hold her up any more. Her dad blinks, tilts his head. “You are happy, aren’t you?” 

Chris nods, wipes her eyes with the hand that’s not holding his. “I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.” She and Tom hadn’t been trying but they hadn’t been doing anything to prevent it either, but with caring for her dad, it had been the last thing on her mind. 

“You’ll make a wonderful mother,” her dad said, patting her hand before enclosing it in both of his. “And Tom will make a wonderful father. Almost as good as me.” His lips twitched at that and the noise that Chris made was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Just promise me something.” 

“Of course.” 

“You’ve got to let this baby have its own name. No sentimental naming it after me.” She opens her mouth to say something but he cuts her off. “After all, William’s a bit old fashioned for a boy and Wilhelmina is completely unsuitable for a little girl...”

Chris does laugh at that, laughs til the tears are falling once again and her father joins her. They laugh like that until a third voice breaks in. 

“What joke am I missing?” Tom asks, his jaw going slack when Chris turns to look at him and he sees her face, the tears rolling down her no doubt red and blotchy cheeks. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” says her dad when words once again fail Chris. “Everything is absolutely wonderful.”


End file.
